Electronic messaging, such as through email, is a powerful communication tool for the dissemination of information. However, the ease of sending messages can result in a recipient receiving large numbers of messages in a single day. This is because, in addition to messages sent by actual people, a recipient may receive messages generated by machines from third party services such as airlines, invitation generating companies, courier services, and social media sites. These messages may include confirmations, notifications, promotions, social media updates, and messages from collaboration systems.
The classification of messages into message categories helps recipients to parse through all of these messages. For example, having messages classified into just a few basic categories (e.g., promotions, social, updates, and forums) greatly assists a recipient in determining which messages to review, and allows the recipient to review message that are of a similar type at the same time (e.g., all personal messages at the same time). Moreover, such classification helps to put similar messages in the same place, for ease of comparison. Message classification provides a more efficient, productive environment for recipients. This is useful for both current electronic messages and past messages.
One way to handle electronic messages is to implement automatic foldering. That is, automatically move a user's electronic messages into folders based on either filtering rules or categorization rules. However, such schemes have drawbacks. One problem is the reliance on the accuracy of classifiers on real-world data. While classifiers can classify electronic messages, the accuracy is inherently limited. Another problem is that users distrust automatic schemes in which electronic messages may be placed into unexpected folders, making them difficult to find.
Although automatic foldering has its drawbacks, the classification of messages, into message categories can help users to review their messages. Fairly accurate classifiers have been developed to correctly categorize many messages, particularly when the set of message categories is small. When a message is misclassified, a user may manually re-categorize the message. For example, an automated classifier may classify a given message as a “promotion.” The message recipient considers the message to be in the “social” category. The message recipient uses the messaging application to change the message category from “promotion” to “social.” Message category correction events are commonly done in order to provide the user with a means for more easily retrieving the message at a later date. When messages are correctly categorized, the user can find them (manually or with a search tool).
Manual category correction, however, is inefficient, particularly for a user with a large number of messages or for a user with a mobile device that has limited user interface functionality. Because of this, many users do not re-categorize messages at all or re-categorize only a limited number of misclassified messages.
Therefore, there is a need for a more efficient process to reclassify messages.